The failure in Afghanistan is product of both parties, multiple Administrations and the folks in the 5 sided building. Battles are won or lost at the battalion level or below and America has not lost many battles since WWII. Wars are won or lost by the Generals, Admirals and politicians, we have not won any wars since WWII. The lack of press interest is a reflection of the publics lack of interest. The American attention span /support for a war effort is short -about 6 years. Even "good wars" like WWII saw less public enthusiasm as the war went on exhibited by things like by 1945 the Army had to rely on draftees to fill 65% of it's manpower.
We have had an armistice in Korea a draw, a win in Grenada, I'd say we won Desert storm if you just count achieving mission objectives, but the rest nope. Mission creep, fantasy in Nation Building and thinking flying the LGBTQ flag over Kabul's embassy was cool, along with dealing with an enemy whose truce is for when we are strong and it ends when we are weak.
We should have left Afghanistan after Al Qaeda was taken down, or pursuit of Osama carried all the way and never should have gone into Iraq.
In the big picture, yes the blame goes to both parties, State, and DoD. But the complete clusterfrack that was the final withdrawal has the fingerprints of only one party on it. Biden's White House prevented the DoD from doing smart things that wuld have saved Aerican lives.
The Fall of Saigon was 'celebrated' in images and popular culture for decades. Weird how this fall of Kabul is basically forgotten. It's almost as if everyone in the Press is aligned with the Democratic party and only exists to preserve them in power....
Wonder what happened to the huge pile of $100 bill packs in a room where they lined three walls about 3 1/2 feet deep maybe 6 feed wide around three sides of the room.
I deployed to Afghanistan in Jan 2002. I could have NEVER imagined we would be there twenty years later. I was for the war(s)....until I step into a village on patrol and was transported back to the 9th century. It was mission impossible to drag them kicking and screaming to our "enlighten" 21st century. To give you a flavor our "compentence", we would be give them "aid" in the form of female hygiene products......men in an infantry unit trying to explain what tampoons are to village elders (old men). Why? Probably because some pressure group back in the states got some corporation to donate the product and the USAID put pressure on our leadership to give this stuff out. Competence......
Afghanistan, graveyard of empires.
A well run withdrawal from Kabul, 1989: Russian
A poorly run retreat, 1842: British
"A byproduct of disinterest by most of our press who seem to want to discuss almost anything else."
Anything that makes Democrats looks bad gets memory holed.
The failure in Afghanistan is product of both parties, multiple Administrations and the folks in the 5 sided building. Battles are won or lost at the battalion level or below and America has not lost many battles since WWII. Wars are won or lost by the Generals, Admirals and politicians, we have not won any wars since WWII. The lack of press interest is a reflection of the publics lack of interest. The American attention span /support for a war effort is short -about 6 years. Even "good wars" like WWII saw less public enthusiasm as the war went on exhibited by things like by 1945 the Army had to rely on draftees to fill 65% of it's manpower.
True words.
We have had an armistice in Korea a draw, a win in Grenada, I'd say we won Desert storm if you just count achieving mission objectives, but the rest nope. Mission creep, fantasy in Nation Building and thinking flying the LGBTQ flag over Kabul's embassy was cool, along with dealing with an enemy whose truce is for when we are strong and it ends when we are weak.
We should have left Afghanistan after Al Qaeda was taken down, or pursuit of Osama carried all the way and never should have gone into Iraq.
Hindsight is 20/20.
In the big picture, yes the blame goes to both parties, State, and DoD. But the complete clusterfrack that was the final withdrawal has the fingerprints of only one party on it. Biden's White House prevented the DoD from doing smart things that wuld have saved Aerican lives.
"disinterest by most of our press"
Maui is a prime example.
The Fall of Saigon was 'celebrated' in images and popular culture for decades. Weird how this fall of Kabul is basically forgotten. It's almost as if everyone in the Press is aligned with the Democratic party and only exists to preserve them in power....
Wonder what happened to the huge pile of $100 bill packs in a room where they lined three walls about 3 1/2 feet deep maybe 6 feed wide around three sides of the room.
Navy Marine Corps Day!!
Pls provide the link to the pod cast
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ZFtf8bjxEs0ndvyTWYGFR?si=iEGzAxDcT12PJGN4mg__8g
Turned a short winnable war into a FUBAR, again.
And now, Ukraine. Which will end as Saigon and Kabul did.
I deployed to Afghanistan in Jan 2002. I could have NEVER imagined we would be there twenty years later. I was for the war(s)....until I step into a village on patrol and was transported back to the 9th century. It was mission impossible to drag them kicking and screaming to our "enlighten" 21st century. To give you a flavor our "compentence", we would be give them "aid" in the form of female hygiene products......men in an infantry unit trying to explain what tampoons are to village elders (old men). Why? Probably because some pressure group back in the states got some corporation to donate the product and the USAID put pressure on our leadership to give this stuff out. Competence......
Or you can read this book that was published a couple years ago. : https://operationpineappleexpress.com